The Founders Helping The UK Government Create 'The United Nations Of Startups'

Jonathan Gan pauses to study the yachts moored in the St Katharine Docks harbour just the other side of the giant glass windows in the foyer of no. 1 St Katharine’s way, in the heart of London’s Tower Bridge business district. A sleek, modern office block, surrounded by many of the world’s most successful banks, financial services and media companies, it is an appropriate venue to hear Jonathan talk about his Startup, Whichit, and it is also home to the Rainmaking Loft, where the UKTI run Sirius programme, the organisation responsible for bringing Jonathan and his Company from Israel to the UK in the first place, traditionally holds its induction day.

Whichit

“Israel is known as the Startup Nation right now”, Jonathan explains in answer to my question, why London? “You would almost have to be crazy to want to move a business anywhere else, but the UK has this incredible diversity, it’s a place where everything is possible, for everyone. On one side of every street you have the brands, on the other, the customers. Every single cultural demographic is represented here; for a Company like ours that plays middleman to marketers and their target audience (Whichit is a mobile social voting and polling app enabling merchants to engage with customers via photo sharing and social media), there couldn’t be anywhere better”. On a more pragmatic note, he adds, “the time zones here are also perfect for business. Tokyo in the am, New York at night.”

Tower Bridge as viewed from the North-East near St Katherine Dock. This is a four-segment panorama taken by myself with a Canon 5D and 24-105mm f/4L lens. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jonathan and the Whichit team have recently won a £500k investment through a private business angel, a vindication both of Jonathan’s decision to uproot his team, and the Sirius Programme’s decision to award Whichit a much coveted place on their programme.

The programme was initially set up by the Government’s Department of Trade and Investment as an attempt to attract more young entrepreneurial talent to the UK, and it has quickly established itself as one of the most comprehensive startup support packages in the world, offering mentoring, a place on one of 5 top UK accelerators, a modest living allowance, and, crucially for some young entrepreneurs, a Tier 1 entrepreneurial Visa, allowing founders to remain in the UK and pursue their business dreams after the programme, which lasts approximately 1 year, has ended.

Last year there were over 2,200 entrants for the programme, which is sub-divided into 2 categories: an “ideas” stream, for those with outstanding entrepreneurial potential and an initial concept idea, and a “business stream” for those who have already begun to put their ideas into practice.

The selection process is carefully designed to attract top talent, rather than dissuade people from entering by demanding unnecessarily complex or detailed information. A 2 minute YouTube video pitch is requested, plus there are some questions about both the team and their business idea. Applicants must be a team of 2 or 3 Co-Founders and / or Directors, recent graduates, and the team must be prepared to relocate to the UK.

The judging panel is drawn from a diverse collection of external experts, and accelerator staff and mentors. 67 companies are currently on the scheme, drawn from over 93 different countries. 5 of the first 9 companies to have joined the programme have gone on to win external funding.

Last Friday Sirius invited me to attend part of the induction day for their latest cohort, and I had the chance to meet some of them, as well as several of the previous year’s winners, all at different stages of development.

CADBEAM

Laurent Biancardini is the founder of CADBEAM, a company that uses mobile app technology to help construction companies project manage more effectively. Laurent described CADBEAM as “a mobile toolkit”, which increases efficiency, particularly around scheduling, where typically projects may lose 12% of their total contract value due to the unnecessary rework caused by delays or miscommunication.

The software has already been used by French Companies Vinci and Costain, and been awarded an innovation voucher from TSB, meaning CADBEAM will be BIM eligible in 2016 when the new regulations governing project management in the construction sector take effect, a significant competitive advantage.

“The SIRIUS programme has helped me to work in one of the largest construction sites in Europe, the “Silicon Roundabout”, Laurent joked. “I am very grateful to them for everything they have done for me.” The Company, with 2 co-founders and a development team of 7, is currently self-funded, but their pedigree, plus the contacts they have made through their association with Sirius should allow them to attract funding and scale the business quickly as their pipeline of work increases.

Carbon Analytics

Next I spoke with Colin MacLaughlin, the Head of Finance at Carbon Analytics. Recently voted one of the builders of tomorrow by the pan-European Hello Tomorrow Challenge, the Company was founded with the belief that companies of all sizes can more effectively manage their environmental footprint, helping to build a greener business climate.

Colin told me that there are 4.9 million SME’s in the UK, of which he believed 99% could improve the way they handle their Carbon emissions by making only minor changes to their modus operandi. The software Carbon Analytics uses is compliant with most project management and accountancy software, including SAGE, the most popular, allowing companies to track and monitor their environmental impact, using big data to drive gamification and point scoring strategies to help reach new and improved targets.

All three of the Carbon Analytics team are from the United States, and have recently completed MBA studies at Oxford University. Colin described the SIRIUS program as “phenomenal”, and although the team are yet to embark on a round of funding, they say that they are biding their time, unwilling to give away too large a slice of equity in the business at the present time.

TrueInvivo

I also met medical physicist Shakardokht Jafari, from Afghanistan and her partner, Iranian Shabnam Jamshidi, the founders of TrueInvivo, a medical device that helps to measure the quality of treatment received by cancer patients as they undergo the 3 stages of treatment: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.

The product is a non-invasive implant such as a nasal or urinary catheter, which, because it is able to penetrate a patient’s skin, allows for more effective analysis of how a tumour is targeted and how to avoid damaging healthy cells during treatment. Shakardokht developed the product whilst studying for a PHD at the University of Surrey, and joining the SIRIUS programme has enabled her to continue her research in the UK. She is optimistic that the product could become an integral part of cancer treatment by the NHS in the UK, and of private treatments in other parts of the world.

“We want to make sure that it’s viable for all, even very poor countries like Afghanistan”, she explained. “After the devastation of watching a close friend die of cancer, I was determined to make a difference. I am confident that the Sirius Programme will help us achieve our objective”, added Shabnam. The two are hopeful that monetising the business will allow them to fund the development of a range of affordable and effective medical devices.

Finally, I spoke to Amin, an Iranian entrepreneur who had just arrived in the UK, after recently winning a place on the SIRIUS scheme to develop a prototype drone designed to help save people from drowning. Amin’s research suggests that a drone can accomplish in 20 seconds what may take a lifeguard up to 90 seconds, which could help to drastically reduce the number of deaths from drowning worldwide, which is currently estimated by the World Health Organisation to be more than 320,000.

Amin’s 2 co-founders have joined him from France, and, thanks to the SIRIUS scheme, they have already found some affordable accommodation in London through friends.

“Joining SIRIUS has been great”, he said, “I have only been here 10 days and I have already met with several different mentors. I was educated in the UK when I was a young boy; the education system here encouraged me to have ideas and helped me to believe that I could accomplish great things through scientific study. In my home country, the education system is too focused on facts and theory, here they teach you to use your imagination. When we first released a video showing what we had developed, we had interest from over 25 countries, but the UK was always the right choice for me.”

The diversity of the projects SIRIUS has been able to back is extraordinary. Programme Director Paola Cuneo employed scouts whose job it was to scour the globe, finding the right blend of entrepreneurial nous, business acumen and willingness to embrace the burgeoning UK Tech scene.

Paola told me: "It is this diversity which gives Sirius its unique character. I am very impressed by the talent of the new graduate entrepreneurs and their drive and determination to build successful businesses in the UK. Equally, I am hugely proud of the established teams who have already secured funding, customers and awards. I can see many companies with the potential to become global businesses and contribute to the UK’s growth.”

The Whichit Team at 10 Downing Street (Photo Credit Whichit Ltd)

Applications for the most recent competition are now closed, and the program has also reached the end of its 2 year pilot. Whatever the UK Government plan to do next, there can be little doubt that Sirius has played a vital role in creating what many regard as the most vibrant, certainly the most diverse, Tech hub in the world.

“I was at a conference in Tel Aviv when I first heard about Sirius”, Jonathan Gan told my colleague, “When they told me about the programme, I went straight home and started filling in the application form”. 1 year later, he believes “I have a billion dollar Company in the making”. It’s rare to see business and government so closely aligned, and achieving such promising results.

I am a freelance journalist based in London, where I work closely with entrepreneurs around the "Silicon Roundabout", London's answer to San Francisco's Silicon Valley, New York's Silicon Alley and Israel's Silicon Wadi! I like to focus on the world's most exciting entrepren...